By: Robert Hamilton and Harry Hobbs
Matter Commented On: Victoria’s Statewide Treaty and Statewide Treaty Bill 2025
PDF Version: Treaty-Making in Australia and Considerations for Canada
Indigenous peoples in Australia have long sought to establish treaty relationships with the state. While important advocacy efforts such as the 1988 Barunga Statement and the final report of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation in 2000 failed to lead to negotiations at the national level, a statewide treaty was recently signed in the state of Victoria. The first formal Indigenous treaty ever negotiated in Australian history, the Victorian Statewide Treaty is a novel model of treaty that is worth considering closely in Canada, particularly as Indigenous peoples and federal, provincial, and territorial governments continue to look for productive ways to implement historic and modern treaty promises and craft novel forms of agreement. Creative thinking is required to take steps to meet the Crown’s constitutional obligations to diligently implement treaty promises, proactively assess and manage cumulative impacts on Aboriginal and treaty rights, meaningfully implement modern treaty and self-government agreements, and satisfy its obligations under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Recent discussions about the relationship between treaty rights and a secession referendum in Alberta (which one of us discussed here) also illustrate the importance of thinking creatively about the relationship between Indigenous self-determination, treaty rights, and other democratic state process and institutions. This blog summarizes Victoria’s Statewide Treaty and the proposed bill that will implement it.